


The Tunnels of Love . . . and Danger

by Inkribbon796



Series: Masks and Maladies [75]
Category: Markiplier fandom - Fandom
Genre: Adventure, Adventure & Romance, Fluff, M/M, Putting a cinnamon roll in peril, boys be gay, superhero au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-05
Updated: 2020-06-05
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:28:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,944
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24557662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Inkribbon796/pseuds/Inkribbon796
Summary: Illinois brings Eric on an adventure where they face danger, love, and disapproving family members (not necessarily in that order).
Relationships: Eric Derekson/Illinois
Series: Masks and Maladies [75]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1538131
Comments: 4
Kudos: 30





	The Tunnels of Love . . . and Danger

**Author's Note:**

> A LOT of people wanted this so it’s coming out before another couple of fics. That and it was fun to write even if it was way longer than I planned it to be.

Eric was in the kitchen at two in the morning, fighting the urge to hum to himself because he had to be quiet.

“Hey, Eric, what you up to?” King asked.

The young, timid hero jumped in the air, fingers clenching tightly around the butter knife in his hands. He didn’t even know that King had come back to the base last night.

“Uh, K-King,” Eric said, trying to hide the part of the counter he’d been working in front of. “You came back tonight?”

“Hungry?” King asked suspiciously.

Eric grabbed one of the sandwiches that he’d carefully put into a baggie. “Y-Yes.”

King’s tilted as he tried to look around him, “Okay.”

“I’m done with the counter if you want anything,” Eric mumbled as he quickly stuffed the other sandwich into a bag and hid them behind his back.

King was watching him, this serious glare that King rarely gave people, “You know, Illy has a preference of mustard over mayo.”

“I,” Eric trailed off. “He does?”

King dragged his hands over his eyes, “Eric, I thought I was clear last time, you can’t trust him.”

“Wh-at do you k-know?” Eric stammered angrily.

“Uh,” King began angrily. “I lived with that maniac, he hangs on Dark’s every word. What part of dangerously, loyal enforcer didn’t you understand?”

“He’s not like that,” Eric defended, trying to push past King but the other hero stayed in his way, Eric unable to push him away.

“Yeah, he’s a real charmer for all of five minutes until Dark tells him to do something,” King argued. “Trust me, you don’t know him as well as I do. The types of secrets he keeps.”

“Not from me,” Eric spat.

“Eric,” Randall walked into the room, he’d been hiding a bit until it was obvious Eric wasn’t going to listen. “Calm down, let’s just talk about this.”

“I n-e-ver get to t-alk any-ways,” Eric spat and lifted his hand. Instead of his usual smoke and fire explosions he let off something more like a small flash bang. King screamed at something going off so close to his eyes, especially in a previously almost-dark room. Eric carefully slipping past both the heroes as he ran towards the door.

“That little fucker!” King spat, one hand on the wall and the other covering his eyes. “Rey, get him before he gets to Illinois.”

“Where’d he go,” Randall was trying to clear his own eyes and when he was finally able to see into the darker room he ran towards the front door to see it wide open. “He got out, get Jackie on the phone, he couldn’ta gotten that far.”

Suddenly the Host was at the door, casually closing it.

“Host, Eric’s going to meet one of Dark’s enforcers,” Randall told him.

The Host was quiet except for his narrations as he started to lock up the base again.

“Hey, didn’t you hear me?” Randall walked over, the Host’s hands going into his pockets. The seer stared at Randall, more intense than a man with no eyes should have had.

Randall he’d up his hands, “Uh, right, sorry.”

“Host,” King spat appearing at the head of the hallway, “don’t.”

“The King of the Squirrels and Randall should return to bed, it will be difficult to perform their hero duties while tired,” the Host reminded.

“Well that’s gonna have to take a backseat because we’ve got a starry-eyed rube chasing the biggest psychopath the whole network’s got,” King spat. “You know how he gets on his adventurers.”

“Illinois will not harm Eric,” the Host promised.

“Yeah, like I’d believe that even if Illy was the only problem,” King scoffed. “I don’t need to remind you what’s going to happen when Dark finds out, which he will.”

“Eric will be invited to dinner,” Host smiled. “It will involve Indian takeout.”

“Great,” King threw up his hands, “I’m calling Jackie, _don’t_ stop me.”

Raymond walked over to the Host who was standing there, smiling. “What did you do?”

“The Host rerouted all of the King of the Squirrel’s calls for the next fifteen minutes to go to the Host’s desk phone,” the Host grinned.

There was a scream from further into the base, “Fine I’m waking up, J.J, asshole.”

“The Host advises against it,” the Host called back.

Eric was already running towards the closest park, it had been chosen as a meet-up because it wasn’t King’s park and it was closer. A couple hours ago Eric had hidden a duffel bag there.

Standing next to Eric’s hiding place was Illinois with Eric’s bag at his feet.

Seeing Illinois there waiting for him made Eric pause. Illinois had promised that he’d be there waiting for Eric, but in the back of his head he couldn’t help but doubt that someone like Illinois would actually be waiting for _him_.

Illinois looked over at him, giving Eric a happy smile when he saw him. “Hey, there you are.”

Eric walked over, glancing around.

“Think you were followed?” Illinois grinned, looking around.

“Pr-Probably,” Eric stammered.

“Awesome,” Illinois smiled and took off his hat, tapping something inside his hat and one of Dark’s void portals opened up.

Eric eyed it nervously as Illinois walked over to it.

“Come on, stick close and he won’t notice a thing,” Illinois smiled and held his hand out.

Feeling his heart beat just a bit faster, Eric took his hand and Illinois held him almost crushed to his side as they went through the portal. The other side of the portal didn’t lead to a haunted creepy manor or one of Dark’s warehouses, but right in front of a plane.

One of the security personnel was there waiting for them. Illinois held out Eric’s bag, “Last one.”

Illinois caught Eric staring at it. He nudged Eric a little, smiling, “It’s a rental, can’t let Wil get close to this thing or else he might think he can fly it.”

“Really?” Eric stammered a bit. “Dark won’t get mad I’m coming along?”

Illinois made a scoffing sound as they got into the plane and it began preparing to take off. It was only after the pilot was securely in the cockpit and the plane had already started taking off that Illinois started talking a bit more seriously.

“Okay so, Dark’s doesn’t know you’re here, because if he did he’d want to meet you first and I don’t trust what he’s going to do,” Illinois warned.

“Oh,” Eric replied dejectedly. “What happens when he figures out?”

“He won’t,” Illinois promised firmly, “I already ran the numbers and if the expedition goes as well as I think it will, _and it will_ , then Dark will have a new fancy magical trinket and all expenses will just be covered by the time he even sees the expense list.”

“O-Okay,” Eric looked down at his hands.

“Don’t worry even if he does find out,” Illinois bent his head a bit to make eye contact with Eric again, “all that will happen is he’ll want to meet you and invite you over for dinner. Still something we want to avoid cause it’s gonna be hella awkward, but he’s not going to kill you.”

“Uh, oh, good,” Eric muttered. “He’s kinda terrifying.”

“Well he’s not here now, you like Khmer cuisine?” Illinois distracted.

“What’s that?” Eric asked, and Illinois smiled at him in excitement. They talked for a bit before landing in some city that Eric thought was gorgeous, bright and colorful. Illinois had told him the name of the city they were in — Siem Reap — but Eric couldn’t pronounce it or really remember it and he was too nervous to ask especially when Illinois was so fluent and he’d obviously been in the city before.

Eric kept his hand entwined with Illinois, desperate not to get lost or lose Illinois in the crowd. They had a great time in the city, Illinois took him on a quick tour their first day in, taking Eric to a nice little restaurant. It was amazing and Eric was so enthralled by being in such a different place.

Illinois woke Eric up early the next day, and they took a trip over to a temple that seemed to have trees growing around and from parts of the temple.

“Welcome to Ta Prohm!” Illinois gestured with his arms.

“It’s amazing,” Eric was starry eyed. “Are we looking for something around here?”

“No, but it’s not too far, we’re going to this great place, rumor has it it still has a set of magical, and or cursed, artifacts that has been giving the area trouble,” Illinois explained. “It was smuggled in by a group of thugs passing by the area.”

“So, uh, are we allowed to take it?” Eric asked nervously.

“Yeah, I was called here,” Illinois struggled and reached into his bag, pulling out a black ball cap. “You should put this on, it’ll protect your eyes from the sun. Glasses, plus sun, can be the worst.”

“Oh, thanks,” Eric blushed.

“No problem,” Illinois smiled, leading Eric on a quick tour of the temple before they got back into a car.

“So it wasn’t at the temple?” Eric asked.

“Nah, I already got a tip for where it should be,” Illinois answered, “I just wanted to show you the place while we had the chance.”

“I thought we were staying for a week,” Eric felt a little put out by that, but he supposed he really shouldn’t be complaining about the time he was getting to spend here.

“Yeah, well, I don’t know how long it’s going to take to find this thing and we’re going to have to be careful bringing what we find back to town. If there’s time I want to show you more than Pub Street, there are some great sights in Siem Reap and we’ll need every second we can get.”

“Really?” Eric asked, he didn’t know it was possible to be more in love with the man.

They drove around for a bit before Illinois’s truck stopped in front of what seemed like an excavation sight, and he did not look happy. “Keep your hat low,” Illinois reached over to gently tip down Eric’s hat a bit to shield his face. “You can talk, but just trust me.”

“W-Why?” Eric asked nervously.

He jumped and let out a startled yelp when someone knocked on Illinois’s driver side door.

Illinois just rolled down his windows, “Hey, did the circus come to town and no one gave me a flyer?”

“We’re just cleaning up,” the man said with a heavy accent that Eric couldn’t place. “Don’t worry, we don’t need any other assistance.”

In the blink of an eye, to Eric at least, both Illinois and the man had guns pull on each other.

“Does the Ol’ Man know you’re here?” Illinois asked. “Cause he knows I’m here.”

“We were promised this shipment, you entitled prick,” the man snarled.

“Bet you were, maybe you should just leave me the cursed jewelry and pat yourselves on the back?” Illinois smiled, a look of a man who _knew_ — instead of _thought_ — he was invincible. “Sides, what are you and your friends going to do? Shoot me? Ransom me? Bury me out back and hope that Dark doesn’t track you down and torture you for harming me?”

The man looked furious, and Illinois lowered his gun and just smiled, a dare and a challenge.

Eric waited, nervous and terrified because Illinois’s luck had to run out eventually. After all, Eric was in the car with him and he was a walking bad luck magnet, sooner or later, Eric’s bad luck would win out.

But the man lowered his gun and Illinois stepped out, “Copacetic, me and my assistant are going to take a walk through, find anything cursed, and you guys can have what’s left.”

“How kind,” The guy sneered, then watched Eric, who Illinois was signaling to follow him out of the car. “What happened to the old one?”

“Didn’t know how to walk a straight line?” Illinois shrugged, taking the small backpack that Eric had. “Shame really.”

“Just be fast, the tunnels are dark and when we go in, might mistake you for an animal or a thief,” the man warned cryptically.

Illinois tipped his hat and pulled Eric closer to him as he led them towards a dark cavernous entrance that prickled into Eric’s soul when he looked into it. “Thanks for the heads up.”

Eric nervously followed Illinois into the tunnel, “I d-on’t like this.”

“Yeah, well, we’re going to have to be careful when we leave,” Illinois warned, turning on a flashlight as they walked through the twisting, branching tunnels. Tied to the flashlight was a piece of chalk that Illinois used to mark every branching path they took.

“What’s in the tunnel?” Eric asked, clinging close to Illinois.

“I told you,” Illinois smiled warmly. “Adventure, treasure.”

“Okay,” Eric tried to be more confident and trusting.

“You can take your hat off if you want to,” Illinois reminded. “I just didn’t know if anyone would recognize you.”

“But I’m not an enforcer,” Eric replied, he did pull his hat up so that he could see better.

“Yeah, but your piece of shit dad was, and no offense, you look just like him,” Illinois explained.

“Oh,” Eric looked away, some bad memories coming back to him at the mention of his father. He stopped, and Illinois slowed to a stop as well, looking back at him.

“Eric?” Illinois asked. “It’s okay, he can’t hurt you anymore.”

“Is Dark nice to you?” Eric mumbled, so quiet that Illinois didn’t really hear it.

“What was that, sweetheart, I didn’t quite hear you,” Illinois’s tone was kind, and Eric didn’t like to imagine Illinois in similar circumstances to what he’d been through.

“Did,” Eric faltered, suddenly scared and nervous. “Dark is . . . uhm, he’s not mean to you, right?”

Illinois was quiet for a bit, and Eric wasn’t looking at his face. “Look,” Illinois began. “I’m not going to stand here and bullshit you that Dark doesn’t have the emotional maturity of a grapefruit. But he’s not violent towards me or the others. His network? Oh yeah, in a heartbeat, he’ll put someone down for, sometimes, the stupidest shit. He’ll get loud and glare at things, but he’s nice to us.”

Eric looked up to see a thoughtful look on his face, but he didn’t voice his thoughts. “Come on,” Illinois offered, “you wanna keep going?”

Not trusting his own voice, Eric nodded and walked over to Illinois again to follow him.

The two were walking the caves for what felt like a long time when Illinois stopped them to look at a marking he’d left in the wall before. He looked frustrated and worried.

“Hey, shitball,” a voice called down from the hall.

Illinois muttered under his breath and started to push Eric behind him. He looked at his watch. “Having fun with the caves?” Illinois asked.

“What’d you find?” One of the men asked.

Eric grabbed onto the back of Illinois’s shirt.

“Well we’ve been walking an hour and these caves loop around,” Illinois said. “I’m starting to think you dragged me out here for nothing.”

The man shouted something in another language, clearly upset. Illinois responded, sounding just as angry.

Either because of the recent reminder of his father, or the yelling, Eric took a step back and his foot slipped off the ground and into a deep hole that suddenly appeared where Eric could have sworn they’d just been walking over.

Eric screamed in panic, holding onto Illinois as he tried to regain his footing. Illinois glanced back, his eyes widening when he saw the hole.

One of the men shot his gun at them, missing Illinois by millimeters in the darkened cave. Eric screamed again.

Suddenly Illinois grabbed Eric and threw them both into the dark hole, Eric screaming in terror.

Illinois wrapped his arms around Eric and they landed hard on a part of the hole that was starting to slope toward a chute of some kind. Eric was screaming as Illinois held the man to his chest and hoped that his luck wasn’t about to run out. If he could cushion his own fall, he could use himself to cushion Eric’s descent.

Finally they crashed into the side of something, a bit harder than Illinois would have liked. His feet and legs ached but he could still feel them. Eric was still shaking even after they had stopped, clearly terrified.

“You okay?” Illinois finally asked.

“I do-on’t wa-wanna d-o that a-gain,” Eric stammered shakily.

“We won’t, don’t worry sweetheart,” Illinois laughed. “That was a wild ride though.”

Eric rolled off of Illinois, lying flat on the ground. “Wh-ere are we?”

Illinois checked his flashlight, smiling at his good luck when it still worked. “Don’t know, think we dropped into some sacrificial hole they dumped offerings into. Must be warded from sight.”

“So why’d we fall in?” Eric asked, pushing himself up again.

“The worst best luck,” Illinois shrugged, chuckling a little bit.

Eric blushed, weakly pushing Illinois, laughing back.

Illinois smiled and in the little half-hearted shoving match Eric was lightly pushed to the ground, Illinois over him. “Nice try.”

Any retort Eric could have mustered up was forgotten when Illinois leaned down to kiss him.

When Illinois pulled away, Eric was sure he was a blushing mess, mostly because he felt like one. The adventurer chuckled to himself, “We’ll finish this after we get out, promise.”

“Uh, uhm,” Eric’s brain couldn’t come up with anything to respond to that.

Smiling, Illinois helped him over a series of large rocks, Eric almost tumbling face-first several times. But they got to an ornate stone door with some kind of inscription on it.

“What does it say?” Eric asked, staying close to Illinois’s side.

“Working on that,” Illinois hummed, then he steered Eric to stand in front of the door. There was a creaking of stone against stone and the door was slowly sliding open.

“What’d you do?” Eric asked.

“Don’t be thanking me yet,” Illinois was pushing Eric in, evading the question. “We still need to get out of here.”

“O-Okay,” Eric said and his eyes widened when he saw what was inside. It looked like a storage room with two shelves full of ornate boxes, and there was what looked like a raised throne on the far wall.

Illinois whistled, “Man this place is not what they advertised on the door.

“Where are we supposed to be?” Eric asked, nervous at the eerie feel in the room.

“Some sacrificial chamber,” Illinois answered, looking through the boxes and pulling them off the shelf. “They had a head cultist or someone they propped up as a god to sit in that chair.”

“We shouldn’t be in here,” Eric took a step back nervously.

“Relax,” Illinois smiled self-assuredly. “Cult’s long gone, they were killed by their own greed for magic or power, or something like that. We need to magic a way out of here, go and sit on that chair over there.”

“But,” Eric nervously looked over at the ornate and beautiful chair. “But isn’t that for their leader? I don’t think I should sit on it.”

“Who’s gonna rib you? The dead?” Illinois scoffed.

Eric looked back at the throne, flinching away from it a bit before walking over to it. “O-Okay.”

When he sat down he was aware that it felt a little too big for him. Illinois walked over and set some of the boxes in front of Eric, acting like he was presenting them to Eric before walking over and taking out what looked like a golden tiara from one of the boxes and carefully set it on Eric’s head.

“Is this part of some ritual?” Eric asked, uncomfortable and nervous of someone walking in through the still open stone door and seeing them. “Don’t you think it’s wrong for me to sit here?”

“Well we need _“great treasure”_ all in one place and you’re the best we’ve got,” Illinois was layering a couple necklaces around Eric’s neck.

“What?” Eric started at him.

“Yeah, it’s part of some elaborate opening ceremony, don’t worry, we’re not summoning anything,” Illinois smiled.

“We’re supposed to summon something?” Eric noticeably paled.

“Technically, but we have something that we can substitute,” Illinois smiled and reached up to puck the little bronze star that the Host had given him. “I see that ink-spewing nightmare hasn’t taken this back yet?”

“Uh,” Eric stammered nervously.

“Don’t worry, I won’t tell the Old Man I found you with it,” Illinois said, pinning the star with the other inside his hat and then placing the hat on Eric’s head, taking the ball cap he’d been wearing before Illinois had put the tiara on him.

“Perfect,” Illinois smiled, holding his hands up in a square, as if preparing to take a picture. “Keep looking pretty.”

Eric blushed scarlet, Illinois did take out his camera to take some pictures which only made Eric try and hide his face beneath his hands.

“Come on, _dulcito leon_ ,” Illinois smiled, leaning in a bit. “I just want a couple pictures of your beautiful face.

“You said Dark wasn’t supposed to know we were traveling together,” Eric was still blushing.

“Oh no, sweetheart,” Illinois’s grinned, winking at him. “These are _all_ for me. I’m keeping all these beautiful pictures of you for myself.”

“So what now?” Eric asked, looking away and blushing.

“Hey! Asshole!”

Both of the young men looked over to see a man limping into the room, gun pointed up at them.

“Perfect timing,” Illinois clapped. “We found the cursed stuff, you can take everything else.”

“I don’t think so, I want the shit he’s wearing too,” the man ordered.

“Sure,” Illinois shrugged. “I mean, it’s cursed, but knock yourself out.”

The man stomped over and Eric was terrified as the man grabbed onto Eric and then turned into dust.

Eric screamed almost falling off the throne, taking off all the jewelry that Illinois had put on him and placing it on the chair. “What happened?”

“I told him to leave the cursed stuff to me, these guys never listen to me,” Illinois clicked his tongue. He pulled one of the necklaces out, the large purple gem on it was glowing and pulsing. “Here’s our ticket out.”

“What is it?” Eric asked, watching Illinois sweep some of the other jewelry into his backpack.

“Just the ritual we needed to leave without me crumbling into dust for trying to leave with you,” Illinois smiled and put the necklace on. “The cultists used to wear it I think. And, _hey_ , if that means I can worship a lovely angel like you for the rest of my life, I’m all game.”

Eric felt his whole body heat up, “Stop that.”

“If it keeps making you blush like that?” Illinois grinned. “Never.”

Illinois gave him another kiss and Eric was sputtering in a blushing panic. Then Illinois snapped his fingers and the two of them were in Illinois’s car, the adventurer pulling away and starting up the car. “I’d call that mission a success.”

“Really?” Eric asked.

“Oh yeah, he’ll love these,” Illinois smiled, holding up the backpack filled with cursed jewelry and trinkets. “It’s like a moth to fire, he can’t resist this stuff.”

“Does that mean you won’t get in trouble?” Eric asked.

“Who cares?” Illinois started heading back to Siem Reap. “I get to spend the rest of the week with you.”

Eric tipped Illinois’s hat forward to hide his blushing, and Illinois laughed as they drove back.

**Author's Note:**

> For those who want to know, King doesn’t like Illinois much and thinks Eric can do better. The Host says go for it because he knows too much.


End file.
